CVE-2012-4406 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) Deserialization of Untrusted Data vulnerability in swift. A fix is available for swift — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Object Storage (swift) Code Injection vulnerability
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
swiftReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
OpenStack Object Storage (swift) before 1.7.0 uses the loads function in the pickle Python module unsafely when storing and loading metadata in memcached, which allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code via a crafted pickle object.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | swift | all versions | 1.7.0pip install --upgrade 'swift==1.7.0' |
Affected Products
fedorafedoraprojectswiftopenstackenterprise linux serverredhatgluster storage management consoleredhatgluster storage server for on-premiseredhatstorageredhatDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for swift, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update swift to 1.7.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2012-4406 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Do not deserialise data from untrusted sources: where the format allows it, restrict deserialisation to an explicit allowlist of expected types, and prefer a data-only format (JSON, Protobuf) over one that can reconstruct arbitrary objects until you can upgrade.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Native Client for RHEL 5 for Red Hat Storage | glusterfs-0:3.3.0.7rhs-1.el5 | RHSA-2013:0691 |
| OpenStack Essex for RHEL 6 | openstack-swift-0:1.4.8-5.el6 | RHSA-2012:1379 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2012-4406 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.